One of the best ways I’ve found to stay charged up and interested + excited about business is by keeping the “edge” we seem to get naturally from attending CE, reading a book or listening to audios. (I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, so for me to sit down and watch videos isn’t exactly reasonable; consequently, I don’t buy videos very often).

Right now, I’ve got 2 audio programs going and two on deck. For every new one I listen to, I try to re-listen to a previous CD or program. It helps the message sink in and I find I miss a lot of the message that first time through. Think about it like this: when you watch a movie a second time, you always pick up on some symbolism or other foreshadowing you missed the first time. Same thing with education: That second exposure is where the message really starts to stick.

Books – I generally am reading 3 or 4 books at any given time. Right now, I’m reading a book by Russell Simmons (of Def Jam fame), a fiction book (murder/detective novel), and a third book on business, which was a gift from Gold Member, Sean Tarpenning.

When my Members recommend a book, I get it that day. In this case, he sent it. So, it saved me a step. The book, turns out, validates the way I thought I should always run my business. Most dentists would read through the first few pages and chuck the book. I read the first few pages and couldn’t put it down. It re-energized me. Big time.

And, because implementation is where it’s at, we’ve already some cool changes at my office as a result of this book. (You can read every book on Amazon, but unless you do something with the knowledge you’re racking up, does it really matter? Implementation and application of knowledge is where it’s at.)

What charges you up? What reinvigorates you to the point where you’re excited again to go to the office and practice dentistry and practice business?

Whatever that is, do more of it. And, involve your team in what you learn. Share it.

In his book, The Great Game of Business, Jack Stack talks about an important point missing from most American’s drive to succeed. (If you haven’t ordered and read Jack’s book yet, do it.)

It’s one of the 10 points he makes in the book that you must adhere to in order to succeed in business.

“You Gotta Wanna.”

Simple on the surface. But, it forces the person accepting it to dig deep. Every time. To displace previously accepted tenants of success. To understand that success requires imbalance.

I’ll give you an example: Most folks’ future wealth is easy to determine by their behaviors. It’s hard to not show your true colors eventually. Natural behaviors that you and I don’t focus on fixing end up coming to the surface.

Every hugely successful entrepreneur is naturally out of balance. There’s no way to live a balanced life and be of top prominence. Top 1% of income AND wealth.

Let’ spend a brief time on “Balance.” It’s defined by the all-knowing Google as, “a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.”

A key to this definition is your own thoughts about “correct proportions.” What may appear to many to be unequal really isn’t. The tough part here is to get the other party to agree due to the weight and value of the different elements.

There’s the work-life “balance.” There’s the balance of enough revenue to pay the bills and not go broke. There’s the balance of keeping relationships in place. (My friends and extended family are hit with this the most – I neglect them terribly at times, in order to keep my wife and 2 girls close and happy while being productive – there IS a cost to this – You have to “Gotta Want It.”)

I explained to my wife early on in our marriage that a lifestyle we both wanted with certain freedoms required payment of some kind. The payment she and my kids would have to make would be in having to sacrifice time spent with me. They’d not get me all day every day. There in fact, might be weeks go by where they’d not get me at all. Fortunately, that’s not been often. (Think about being a soldier’s wife – those men and women are gone for MONTHS at a time and in harm’s way just from wearing the uniform and being an American. Talk about payment.) But, certainly a week at a time isn’t unusual. Certainly it’s a regular event for me to work from the morning ‘til evening – even on Saturdays. And, yes, even on some Sundays. Many times over the years, late into the evening. Sometimes, having dinner brought out to me while I worked.

This past weekend was as much work as play while I fit in a volleyball tournament with my oldest, and a short baseball game with the youngest in the yard, then, back to work both days. I spent an hour writing, an hour on the phone at different times with different folks, and later that night, more writing. No time squandered. Too much to do. Too many opportunities to take advantage of. Early to rise this morning to get this piece written.

Some ask how I get done what I do. It’s because I don’t waste time. I use every minute of productive time in a day that I’m given. Squandering time is akin to squandering money. And, I don’t believe one can ever have too much time, or…money.

Balance is all relative. Do I love my kids? Unquestioningly. Would I do anything for them? Duh. And, I want to set a good example for them. One where Dad is playing all the time isn’t that. Dad working his butt off to achieve something? Definitely. I want them to be productive, rely on no one for anything and work hard. Life’s tough. And, the sooner they learn that and realize it, the better. The more resilient they’ll be.

Sure, I won’t say on my death bed, “I wish I could have spent one more day at the office.” However, I don’t want to saddle my wife or kids or a future generation from my being lazy and dying broke. That’s a balance I’m willing to throw off.

Defining, then living your life on your terms is really what balance is all about. If I get to do that, if YOU get to do that, we are living a balanced life. To hell with the complainers.

Don’t get me wrong: I do enjoy getting away and relaxing. It’s rare for me to take any more than 7 days of vacation. In fact, I can’t ever tell you a time when I’ve taken off two weeks. But, I do have a 10-day break coming. But… like my dad told me, the job’s done when it’s done and not a minute before. And, I’ve got a lot of jobs to do.

A recent weekend found me wearing a shirt with the headline, “Gold in the Old.” It’s a t-shirt advertising Discovery Channels’ show, Fast & Loud. It’s a fun, lighthearted show, reality of course, (yeah), and it’s based on this fella, Richard Rawlins, who buys cars for cheap and either fixes and sells them or just re-sells them. His business, Gas Monkey Garage, is located in Dallas.

Coincidentally, I was out in my own shop for the better part of yesterday afternoon with my oldest daughter who was helping me “organize.” No small task. She loves to organize so it’s a perfect match.

The point was for me to get resources I have in places where I know they’ll be and lump them together with like resources. So, when I need them, I can find them quickly. I can also see what I don’t have and what I do have for resources (20 years of resources piled up in my shop – that’s a lot of 3-ring binders, hundreds of cassette tapes (remember those), hundreds of books and courses of all kinds).

It’s hard to organize this stuff, especially when it’s your own and you’re really just fine with how everything is stacked in piles (I am a pile stacker person).

Anyway – in going through all these piles and boxes, I kept noticing different pieces of brilliant information – some I’d written, some I’d purchased.

It was: Gold in the Old.

Turns out, after the afternoon wrapped up and it was time to get some dinner, I had a 6” pile on my desk in my office that I now needed to rifle through. It’s great stuff, all relevant and all really useful.

Some of the best advice I re-read from the umpteenth time: Go the opposite direction your competitors are heading – you’ll stand out. In other words, don’t do what every dentist in your area is doing. Be different. Innovate.

Another one – often a hard one for us entrepreneurs to swallow: You’ll never have a perfect business and you’ll never be totally “done.” Deal with it.

That alone was worth spending 3 hours rummaging through my old stuff to organize it. It was cleansing – purging even.

As a business owner, you have a few simple decisions to make every day: Will you be a high output person or low? Will you be decisive or do nothing? Will you delay or get it done now?

Making the wrong choice hampers your progress and can get your rear-end in a sling. Those are painful, easy to remember moments, aren’t they?

Sometimes, just like you, I find myself in this position. I can be too quick to decide or not quick enough. I’m quick to get work done and sometimes, it’s rare, but sometimes, really muck things up from moving too quickly.

Some marvel at what I get done in a day and others probably think I have more help than I do to get what I get done. All I know is I milk every hour out of every day that’s not dedicated to downtime. Every minute counts.

And the unspoken question some have is, “What do you do when you miss a delivery date, a deadline, or, completely space doing what you’ve promised and upset a client because you’re so busy?”

I’ll admit: it does happen. Functioning at a high level of implementation/output and working with a team of folks here at JJD that are also high-output individuals, we occasionally scrape our face on concrete. These are embarrassing moments, usually a result of a “lot” going on, and, taking eyes off the ball.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t forgive the errors and it doesn’t make our Members feel any better when they’re part of that toe-stubbin’ on that piece of sidewalk lip that’s lifted ever so slightly. Instead, we go to work to fix the issues, and, put a fail-safe in place to avoid it in the future. And, we do what I’ve always promised; we make sure if there is an error, that our Members come out even better than if there had never been one. So, while there might be some temporary annoyance and discomfort, the end result should be stellar.

How do you handle things like this in your practice? Do you just fix it? Do you just refund the patient? Or, do you go to work to win an Ambassador? Do you turn lemons into lemonade? Does it become a teaching moment or one you wish to distance yourself from ASAP?

Do you find yourself stretched too thin? Or, maybe bored and getting into trouble because of it? It’s a fine balance and one that takes a lifetime to perfect.

All I know is there’s time enough to sleep when I’m dead. Meanwhile, I’ll get everything I can out of all I got (credit to Jay Abraham).

The single biggest reason why we hate change in employees (why we hesitate to show ‘em the door) is the amount of training that is required to replace them.

It takes a tremendous amount of time (someone’s, and oftentimes, it can be yours), money and effort to train someone and get ‘em up to speed to do the job efficiently and reliably. And, so, too many times, we’re tempted to deal with the shortcomings of people we are already paying that “know the job.”

In fact, I know of at least a dozen doctors, right now, that are doing this very thing. Yet, they are frustrated, unhappy and ready to throw their hands in the air from the frustration of it all.

You know this is the case. Especially if…

… you have ever said, “I’d fire _____, but she knows the job and I know what I’ve got and know her shortcomings so I’ll just deal with it for the time being.” (Meanwhile, years go by and you’re still dealing with it.)

Or, “As soon as X happens, I’ll fire ______.” But, X never happens. Or, it takes so long, you’ve relegated yourself to just “living” with it. Like a bad marriage or something.

We then go about justifying why our thoughts are correct. Why delaying the inevitable and what is necessary is OK. Even though our thinking is severely flawed and blocks us from being more successful, we usually don’t see it. We are blind to what is keeping us from moving closer towards our goals. (Yet more proof that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to success behaviors.)

(What I do in this case is to simply create a crisis: fire whomever is not up to par and get to work replacing them. If you’re doing $60k or more a month in your practice, you should not be hiring and firing. The only person you should hire and fire is an office manager, who will quickly become your COO (Chief Operations Officer). If you are still hiring and firing your DAs, hygienists, etc., you’re costing yourself a ton of money and more importantly, time; of which we both have a limited amount left.)

But, this post isn’t about that – instead, it’s about the reason behind why we don’t like to replace folks who are just not pulling their weight. And, why that reason is far more important than you might realize.

I’ll tell you: The easiest thing in the world to solve this “training” issue, to get new employees up to speed faster and more efficiently with as little time as possible involved on your part is to…

Create a System

And, it starts with a Job Description, or, what’s expected of the employee, and then a “User Manual’ for that particular job. In other words, a detailed description showing how YOU want the job done, even how long each aspect will take. Written. Maybe even a few videos created

Doing this is what will separate an $80k a month practice from a $250k a month practice. Because, once you’re at a $1/4mil a month, you can’t afford to NOT have a system in place that accomplishes exactly that for every single position in your office…EVEN YOURS.

(I’ll challenge all you ‘hot shots’ out there – you know who you are – you’ve got a great income, a great practice(s), but what happens if you end up on your back for 6 months? Will YOUR team and other doctors on it know how to do YOUR job? I’ll bet not. So, if you need something to do, you’d better start writing down what it is you do, how it’s done, who your contacts are, what they are responsible for, etc. There is no detail too small to leave out.)

You and I have goals we set for ourselves. Some we write down, some we verbalize to others. (Using both methods at the same time is best. Public pronouncement and writing them down is hard to beat. Then of course, measuring how you do each and every day. This is how goals are met. It’s not a secret. There’s nothing mysterious about it.)

One goal I know you’d really like to hit is to have more new patient referrals. Right?

My question: Are you doing what you should be to get them? Or, are you “hoping” and just not getting?

My guess: You’re doing only a small portion of what you should be to get more. In fact, if I were in your office today, would I even hear your staff (any of them) talk to a patient about referring?

Would I see a newer sign proclaiming you welcome new patient referrals? Would I hear YOU have a convo with any patient about referring? Would I see any pieces of mail being prepared or already mailed (samples) of anything you’ve crafted to generate more referrals?

Would I see a monthly newsletter sent via email and snail mail? (If you’re only doing one, you’re MISSING a huge opportunity – one of the single biggest for practice growth!)

Would I see a chart on the wall in the plush staff lounge where you are plotting out which team member has referred the most patients and the rewards available? (Display pics of the rewards!)

Would I overhear your office manager training staff on asking for referrals?

If the answer is NO to any of these questions, then you’re asking for something that will never happen to the degree you want due to one thing: INCONGRUENT BEHAVIORS and no tracking of the goal.

Fix them. You then should have 1 staff meeting every month on REFERRALS and your team’s plan to generate more all the time. Ongoing meetings over this one thing will DOUBLE your referrals every year! You could go 100% referral! But, unless you’re willing to do the bare minimum above, you’ll never get there.